A bit about me…..I suppose I have always enjoyed drawing. But to give attention to a future life as a biologist or medical man it was a necessary but sad decision to drop it as a school subject. From about the age of 10 I used to sketch ….
with a friend on holiday – I still have some of these old drawings of Broadstairs and scout camps and a nature diary from when I was 12 years old.
I was a medical student and then a house physician at University College and Hospital London (UCH). From there I worked in hospitals in Barnet, North London and later in Birmingham where I met Maria. She was a student midwife. We started in family medicine, eventually moving to Long Buckby in 1964 and acquired three boys and a lovely daughter – not much room left for sketching then! But holidays were times when I could draw, often with my children – we have made some good illustrated holiday diaries. I kept it ticking over. Marie took the photos! I was a GP in Long Buckby Practice from 1964 to 1995. Given this as a background, I really started to paint more seriously when I retired in 1995. I joined a class Nora O’Keefe was running in the Community Centre, and later classes at the Percival Guildhouse in Rugby. It was here that I started to branch out from watercolours to oils and pastels; wildlife to landscapes and a few portraits. Marie became an active patch worker and quilter, and we would share ideas about colour and design.
I think the “buzz” I get from painting is now is in trying to extend myself. Painting is unique in that one has to focus entirely on the subject; in that sense it is like meditation. So, one doesn’t worry about the results – although it’s nice when you feel you’ve got it right. I realise that for many painters now it is important that they have a message – convey something, often disturbing and not entirely “beautiful”. All I am trying to do is act as a mirror to reflect the wonders of our world and the glory of God’s creation. That is a message though!
I hope that these pictures will help you to engage with what’s “out there” in perhaps a new way; to just open your eyes a little to really “see“. That’s quite a challenge!
